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The decades-old Tropicana hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip still is being considered as the future site of a baseball stadium, the current owners of the property say. Any such project would require the demolition of the 1,400-room hotel with casino and meeting space.
A report says an executive with Rhode Island-based Bally’s, on a recent earnings calls, said the land on which the Tropicana sits still is being considered as the future home of the Oakland Athletics, if the MLB team moves from Oakland.
Casino.org says during the Bally’s third-quarter earnings conference call earlier this week, CEO Lee Fenton confirmed that scenario remains a possibility.
That report says even if the MLB team does not move to Las Vegas, “Tropicana could be heading for a teardown. Earlier this year, Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim told reporters the company is eyeing significant changes at Tropicana, and that demolition and rebuilding of the property is possible.”
Bally’s is a relatively new owner of the Tropicana, having acquired the property in the second quarter of 2021. According to Casino.org, at that time Bally’s wrote, “The property benefits from exceptional visibility from McCarran International Airport, East Tropicana Avenue and the Strip, with annual daily traffic (AADT) of approx. 90,000 cars each day. Potential weekly impressions from signage in this area is estimated to be approximate 400,000.”
In September, the casino.org says representatives of Bally’s told the Nevada Gaming Commission its plan is to “significantly overhaul the casino resort in 2024, and that effort could include destroying the venue as it currently sits and starting from scratch.”
Portland, Oregon-based scrap recycling company Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc. had to fend off a lawsuit from the Oakland Athletics when it looked to eject the scrap company from a longtime waterfront export location in Oakland.
In October, an appeals court in California ruled in favor of Schnitzer in its effort to fend off that lawsuit. According to a San Francisco Chronicle report, Schnitzer is not showing a willingness to move from its Oakland site and is among a group of waterfront ballpark opponents that also includes the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association and some trucking organizations.
The Tropicana, which sits on 35 acres of land, opened toward the southern end of the Las Vegas Boulevard Strip in 1957. It has a 22-floor hotel building, a 50,000-square foot casino, and 100,000 square feet of meeting and convention space, according to its website.
If the hotel is demolished, it will join several others in Las Vegas that have dates with demolition equipment in the fast-changing tourist town.
